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EU-India Summit signs civil aviation agreement

At today's EU-India Summit in Marseille, a Horizontal Aviation Agreement was signed which will restore legal certainty to the bilateral air services agreements between India and EU Member States and reinforce EU-India aviation relations.

“The agreement signed today is good news for Indian and EU airlines and passengers as it removes the legal uncertainty from the bilateral air services agreements. But equally important, it represents a very significant step forward in strengthening our relations with India and in opening up new areas of cooperation. India is an important partner for Europe[1] and is one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets. The EU and India have much to gain from closer cooperation in this sector. This agreement is a further tangible result of the EU-India strategic partnership. I expect the cooperation in aviation to deepen much further in the coming years in a range of areas such as regulatory and technical cooperation”, said Vice-President Antonio Tajani.

The horizontal agreement will restore legal certainty to the 26 bilateral air services agreements that India has with individual EU Member States by bringing these into conformity with Community law[2]. It will thus create a sound legal basis for further developing EU-India air transport relations and cooperation in the future.

[1] With nearly 5.7 million passenger travelling between the EU and India in 2007, India is ranked 11th in terms of passenger traffic between EU27 and non-EU countries. Over the past 3 years, EU-India passenger traffic has increased by 75%.

[2] The agreement with India is the thirty-seventh "horizontal" aviation agreement negotiated by the European Commission. In total, 750 bilateral air services agreements between EU Member States and partner countries around the world have now been brought into conformity with EU law.